This invention relates to a current collecting device for a toy vehicle designed for operating on an electrified road surface.
A guidance device for a toy vehicle chassis for race cars on tracks, is known from European Patent 0 933 106 B1, in which a joint is provided in a front end area in front of the front axle, the joint acting between a console of a chassis and a carrier of the guide mechanism. A guide plate which cooperates with a guide groove of the racetrack is provided on the carrier of the guide mechanism and current collecting devices designed as contact brushes receiving power from the racetrack are provided.
German Patent DE 679 07 025 T2 describes an electrically driven toy vehicle having a chassis carried by wheels with an electric motor installed in the chassis. A guidance mechanism is connected to the chassis in the front end and protrudes with a flat journal into a guide groove of a track intended for the toy vehicle. The flat journal is designed to be pivotable about a vertical axis. Brushes mounted on the guide mechanism are in constant contact with electrically conducting rails of the track.
An object of the invention is to take measures on a current collecting device for a track toy vehicle such that the contact elements are advantageously integrated into the current collecting device of the toy vehicle and always correctly aligned with the current carrying rails of a road surface on which the toy vehicle is operated.
This object is achieved according to this invention by a current collecting device for a toy vehicle for use on a track, designed for operation on a road surface, driven by an electric motor installed in a chassis and having a chassis frame which carries the electric motor, whereby the current collecting device has strip-like contact elements which cooperate with current rails in the road surface, wherein the contact elements which are in contact with the current rails of the road surface are carried by a replaceable unit connected to the current collecting device.
The main advantages achieved with this invention may be regarded as the fact that the current collecting device of the toy vehicle comprises a replaceable unit which is easy to handle and with which the contact elements can be replaced without any effort (the contact elements are parts subject to wear because they are in grinding contact with the current rails of the road surface). The housing and the slide are formed by parts that are easy to manufacture, whereby the slide has a logical function. This also applies to the snap closure with the locking element, which not only reliably holds the slide in position but is also cut by pattern into the housing of the changing unit. The replaceable unit with the housing and the slide can be combined structurally in an advantageous manner with a guide mechanism of the toy vehicle, which can be accommodated together in a space-saving manner in the front end of the toy vehicle. Finally, the guidance mechanism which is pivotable about a vertical axis of rotation cooperates with a restoring device which attempts to move said guidance mechanism out of angular positions into a basic position so that there is no problem in positioning the toy vehicle, e.g., after leaving the road surface.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.